The world of Tosh Berman. Focusing on books, and writings by Tosh Berman.
The world of Tosh Berman. Focusing on books, and writings by Tosh Berman.
The world of Tosh Berman. Focusing on books, and writings by Tosh Berman.
Sunday, May 12, 2013
"The Edogawa Rampo Reader"
I feel like i have been waiting for this book for all of my life. it has been a slow amount of time to get the Japanese writer Edogawa Rampo translated into English. One of his collections of short stories have been in print for so many years - yet waiting for another title seemed endless. Now we have at least three other books by Rampo, and I bought them all this year.
"The Edogawa Rampo Reader" is a much needed over-all look of his career. The first half of this book is short stories and the second half are essays -mostly regarding the nature of the 'detective' story. i only found one essay the most interesting and that's "The Horror Of Films" dealing with the nature and history of cinema. It's a great piece on what was then a new medium. He wrote it in 1926, and for a short essay it covers a lot of ground. Basically all to do with being the viewer.
The short stories are all in the creepy mode that I love about Rampo's work. It includes the story about a man who spends a lot of time in the attic where he spies on people down below, and also commits a murder. The long introduction by Seth Jacobowitz is pretty perfect in capturing what is so essential about Rampo, his times, and the work itself. A remarkable writer.
No comments:
Post a Comment